My story starts in 2008 with the birth of my second son, Eric. The day we were to be discharged from the hospital they found a blockage in Eric’s bowel and at 4 days old Eric had surgery on his tummy. The surgery went well, the Doctor said he had never seen anything exactly like what Eric had but thought he would heal just fine. Unfortunately he didn’t. We had several close calls and almost lost Eric on numerous occasions. That’s when they decided to send us out to Cincinnati Children’s hospitain Ohio…..733 miles away from home.

It took us a couple months to get Eric stable enough to handle Chemo. When he was about 9 months old, he started chemotherapy. Around 10 months old he had a stem cell transplant from an anonymous donor. We celebrated his first birthday in the ICU.  At the age of 15 months, Eric lost his battle.

October 1, 2009 the Doctors worked for over 12 hours trying to save Eric’s life and couldn’t. After Eric died, the doctors unplugged all the machines, and took off all the sticky electrodes from his little chest and I held him. Then I gave him a bath and dressed him in his jammies. Then they came and took my baby boy to the morgue.

I don’t have any memory of the 6 months following Eric’s death. Starting in March of the following year I begin to have some spotty memories here and there and that’s when I realized I was in a very bad place. In one of my moments of clarity, I received a postcard from Team In Training and thought….I’ve got to do something. And in October 2010 I ran 26.2 miles wearing a purple jersey and Eric’s name proudly on my bib. That race brought me out of my darkness, back to my family, and back to my life.

I am ready to do it again! I have committed to completing Hits Waconia FULL IRONMAN TRIATHLON August 15, 2015 with Team In Training. I will swim, bike, and run 140.6 miles through beautiful Minnesota. Please consider making a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society’s life-saving mission. Be assured, all donations are 100% tax deductible, and at least 75% of your contribution will directly support the research and development of treatments. Every donation is greatly appreciated, and even a small bit goes a long way!